Missing Face, The

Movement Four

Movement Four (IDA BEE, alone at the grotto. The dance and music of the last scene have quietened down, except for some distant echoes of drums throbbing intermittently.) IDA BEE: (Excitedly, passionately breaking into spiritual song until overwhelmed , she breaks into monologue.) My son, is at last part of the fold. And here, at the grotto, my journey ends. Or could it be the beginning ? The end of the end at the grotto? Knitted with cords of black navels? Pregnant with secrets that weave the souls of my people? Secrets enshrined in the grotto where the beginning of the circle ends to reveal the essence of backness? Here, where my journey ends, I take a leap ... and I limp ... into where pain heralds the birth of a new born child. Pain, breaking the hymen for birth ... breaking soil to deliver seed. And I look at my belly and trace the thread, blood from my navel to the grotto, which perhaps someday will bind me ... (Footsteps can be heard. IDA BEE listens, stops. It is NEBE singing as she approaches IDA BEE at the grotto. NEBE is threshing wool which she spins from a gourd under her arm as she sways and dances towards IDA BEE.) Nebe's Song: "Enn Ebnke" ("The world is too large") 1. lsi n nwamo 0 0 0 0 Oh! Obulu onye na kpoisi na kposi? Osia na nwami ife na kpoi yo 0 0 0 0 Jezu kao kai enee Onye ba bienenu ne nu ebuke Onye ba bianu uwa 0 0 0 o! 2. Aka n nwamo 0 000 Oh! Obu onye na kpo aka na kpo aka? Osia na nwamife na kpoi yo 0 0 0 0 0 Jezu kao kai kenee Onye ba bianinu ne nuebuke Onye ba bianu uwa 0 0 0 o! 3. Afo n nwa moo 0 0 0 h! Obu nu onye nakpo afo na kpo afo? 35 Osia na nwa mi ife na kpoi y 0 0 0 0 Jezu kao ka kenee Onye ba bienu nenu ebuke Onye ba bia nu uwa 0 0 0 0 0 ... (NEBE sings and sways to the rhythm of the song as she arrives at the grotto. IDA BEE, uncertain about the meaning of NEBE's act, stands frozen but watching apprehensively until NEBE suddenly quickens, leaps and stretches the side of her palm to stroke the neck of IDA BEE. This act of "neck cutting" is called "Ibe ugo onu. "Traditionally, "Ibe ugo onu" among the Aniocha-Igbo community is an amorous sign. It is an indication of love and romance from male to female, or as in this case, from any member of the family to a wife married to that family as an indication of the bond between them. It soon becomes clear to IDA BEE that NEBE is being playful as she smiles and repeats the "neck cutting" over and over again. Then IDA BEE hums and dances, following the NEBE's rhythm.) NEBE: (Chanting.) Alua! Alua! Alua! Welcome stranger! Alua Oshimili! Ocean! Wife whose eyes sing! Eyes that glow, flashing dark waters, mingling waters with fires. Fires floating on dark waters, courting the depths of oceans in a mirage! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome wife! Alua, Asia! Asia nwa Asia ngwo! Fish and beauty-queen of rivers! Asia whose soothing skin holds elements in waters captive, while she glides her way to their soul! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome Vii, Uli, whose blackness tattoos conscience with dignity. Welcome Alo, the black die on the weaving-bowl whose blackness, white cannot endure. And charged to attack black, white loses its color to black. Oh black! Ebony, beauty of the forest! Soul of the forest! Ebony whose dark essence mocks termites! Ebony whose body laughs aloud at the untutored hand carving the history of a land! Hand untutored in the secret mystery of a dark forest! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome Egbe! Woman .. . Egbe, woman-bird who does not know a land but journeys there all the same. My fellow woman ... and daughter ... welcome to our land ... MOMAH: (With fire in his eyes.) Dance no more! (IDA BEE and NEBE halt. Silence. IDA BEE looks from MOMAH to NEBE and NEBE back to MOMAH. She is not certain whether this is a 36 conspiracy between mother and son. So IDA BEE looks anxiously from son to mother and from mother to son.) MOMAH: (Calmly to NEBE.) Mother. NEBE: Son. MOMAH...